A Welcome Home

We had a lovely welcome home yesterday. Ben arrived to meet us at the airport with Raja on her leash, which caused much excitement amongst boys and dog! Once home I looked at my post and found another very welcome little package. Ashley, an artist who has a wonderfully creative blog called Peacocks and Dragonflies, recieved one of my Pay it Forward gifts a few months ago. Very sweetly, she went out shopping and searched her local flea market for a thank you gift - this beautiful embroidered handkerchief to add to my collection.

Anyone who knows me can tell what a great choice this is for me - the Lily of the Valley flowers remind me of May 1st here in France, and the blue roses are something of a trademark for this blog, I think. Ashley, I am delighted - thanks so much!

The handkerchief came with one of Ashley's own creations - this excellent button-design card. I'm afraid the central button was smashed in the post, Ashley! But the design of the little buttons and dots is still great, and I'm really pleased to have something you've made, after months of looking at photos of your work. Below, you can see my PIF purse, made with vintage European and Chinese textiles.So here we are again, having had a wonderful time in Edinburgh, and now looking forward to a week of work on windowframes and other outdoor woodwork.I think the boys will be very glad of the pool while their parents do boring things with sandpaper and 'lasure'!

Sweet Tweet Swap

It has been a great experience doing Ele's Sweet Tweet Swap! The theme was birds and springtime, and I had a beautiful piece of vintage Chinese embroidery that I wanted to combine with European lace and linen. Having found out a bit about Ele's home and her favourite colours, I realised that these colours would go in her new dining room, so I decided to put my pieces together on a frame, for a fairly formal effect.I added in some springtime sugared violets from Toulouse, too! The lace is needlepoint lace (made with a needle, or possibly a shuttle, not bobbins). I bought it from France, but it could be from a number of European countries. I like the contrasting texture against the French linen.You have to look fairly closely at the embroidery to see why it was appropriate for the swap. There are at least five flying creatures here!

I THINK this is a crane, which symbolises long life and is legendary in China for being the prince of feathered creatures. However, the legs are not quite like the other crane embroideries I've seen, so it might just be another bird with different symbolism.The sweet bees are a symbol of hard work and industry for the Chinese, just as they are in the west!The butterfly is a symbol of a young man in love. Ahhh!And I'm pretty certain that this is a bat (but correct me if I'm wrong). Bats have a great symbolic meaning for the Chinese, because their name ('fu') sounds the same as the word for happiness.Therefore, Ele's piece of embroidery carries messages of happiness, love, industry and long life! Now on to the AMAZING package she sent me:

What a treat to open it up and find so many charming birds inside!This little notebook is in front of the computer right now, ready for notes.

Oops - the chocolates did melt, I'm afraid, but the taste didn't change and they were MUCH appreciated!The paper on this charming box is vintage music and newspaper cuttings from a dance. There's a lot to look at!And inside, stock for a wonderful Easter display next year! I can't wait!What's in here?An adorable nest necklace, in my colours!This card is up near my computer too.What a charming vase - I know what I can do with this!And I was wondering about buying a little china bird, just the other day! But that one wasn't embellished...So here are some of Ele's lovely gifts, as they have made their way around our home.I made this pile of boxes a week before Ele's parcel arrived, and knew they were just missing one more for the top...

The pretty lamp base is still in need of updating, but meanwhile it looks fantastic with one of Ele's tags!And here are beauties from two different bloggers - the heart from Sharon's Pay It Forward, and another lovely tag from Ele. They could have been made to go together, couldn't they?I have two of these little white cabinets, so it's a good thing there were two tags and two hearts!What a beautiful parcel to receive! I did experience what Ele and I have described as Swap Anxiety. Do you ever get that - wondering how the other person could possibly want what you're making, and opening their parcel feeling that yours was so much less generous? Apparantly this is normal at first and then goes away. Ele has been so sweet and helpful to me, and to the others doing the swap too, I think, so if you ever feel worried about swapping, don't panic! It's wonderful to be able to make and share special things around the world.

A la Poste

On my way to the post office - La Poste. Here's a postie - we're not far off!In goes the cheque for the vintage French lace from ebay...Then a silghtly tedious wait inside, but it's worth it to get the PIF packages sent off! La Poste is set in this square. The blue road signs are in Occitane, the original language of our area (and known to all who have read Labyrinth). Son 1 is taking an optional class in Occitane language and culture at College this year, so we rely on him for pronunciation and a bit of translation.

The excellent bookshop, 'Il etait une fois' (Once upon a time), is next to la Poste, and these amazing trees are in bloom all round the square.Looking around with a camera in my posession, I notice things I wouldn't normally see, like the brick, shutters and lamp above the bookshop.

Here are some great 'oeil de boeuf' (ox-eye) windows further down the square! And the corner of the same building has amazing detail on it.Here's the door - on the main road now, not on the square. Bricks are an ancient tradition around Toulouse, as we are built on clay. The Romans introduced brick-making technology and it was never forgotten. Therefore bricks don't look so Victorian, as they do in the UK. But this building IS 19th century, isn't it?Our town is a bastide, which means a planned medieval town built on a grid pattern. Look down the roads all around la Poste and you can see the grid still functioning...
A bit further down the other side...

But among the old buildings there's plenty of 21st century technology. 'The Green Mouse' below is an I.T. centre. Into the centre now, with the market Halle dominating the very confusing road system. It's in the centre of another square, with all the civic buildings down one side. The Hotel de Ville is connected, by this wonderful war memorial arch,

to the Mairie. As well as the French and EU flags, you can also see the Occitane cross being flown. On another side of the square they're doing up a building which had fallen into disrepair. It's going to look amazing when it's finished - look at the roof top!Opposite, with the Halle in between, is this charming row of arched buildings. Our Notaire has his office there. Yes, like the rest of France, we have two grey cars... imagine trying to find them in a car park!

A lot's going to be going on this summer in and around the Halle. I'll keep you up to date with the events - markets, Vide Greniers, concerts... It's going to be fun!

French Style - Charity Shopping

When I first arrived in France, used to little UK high-street charity shops, I concluded that they're just weren't any charity shops in France. Then a friend pointed out I was looking in the wrong places! The Secours Cathloique and Emmaus shops aren't little stores on the street - they're big warehouses on the trading estates!

It's a bit overwhelming sometimes, but the ladies who run them pay great attention to detail, and on Friday I discovered this bijou little corner just inside Veti Relais!
A vintage wedding special!Look at this happy couple! They've included a lot of their usual stock to great effect (lace 80c a metre):

I liked this dark little corner... The rest of the store is, as usual, decorated by someone very creative - I really don't know who went to such lengths as to paint these lovely murals above the cash till. These plates are so nicely displayed.

And oh, look, a little vintage-style apron!

Some lovely ladies, up on the opposite wall... So, Vive les Maries!

I'm going to take a three-day break (Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday) from blogging, because I've got quite a lot of projects as well as French irregular verbs to learn!

I want to finish and post off my PIF gifts to Ashley and Juanita.

I need to complete this swap, which I'll be sending to Sharon, the Crafty Trundler.

And I only just signied up for this birdie swap, but I have some fantastic bird ideas and am looking forward to getting going on this one, even though I don't know who I'm paired with yet! I think you can still sign up for it - check it out here.